It’s Time to Tighten Up On Firearms Background Checks

Specifically, to make sure that Joe Biden never, ever gets his hands on a firearm. Biden loves shotguns–nothing wrong with that, but it appears that every time he fires one, somebody’s life is in danger. Here is the latest:

I did one of these town-hall meetings on the Internet and one guy said, “Well, what happens when the end days come? What happens when there’s the earthquake? I live in California, and I have to protect myself.”

I said, “Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.”

Off the porch, through the door–someone needs to tell Joe that you aren’t supposed to pull the trigger unless you have some idea who or what you are shooting at. Maybe Congress could pass a law to the effect that all background checks must include an animated GIF of the proposed purchaser. If he looks like this, the application will be denied:

Most people can handle a shotgun a hell of a lot better than they can a semiautomatic weapon in terms of both their aim and in terms of their ability to deter people coming. We can argue whether that’s true or not, but it is no argument that, for example, a shotgun could do the same job of protecting you. Now, granted, you can come back and say, “Well, a machine gun could do a better job of protecting me.” No one’s arguing we should make machine guns legal.

But a great many people think AR-15s are better for self-defense than shotguns. In fact, many police departments equip their officers with AR-15s, for precisely that reason. And more murders are committed with shotguns than with rifles, let alone a subset of rifles like semiautomatics or “black” rifles. So where does the idea come from that we have a constitutional right to own shotguns, but not semiautomatic rifles?